Takes Exception To RuPaul's Statement Blaming America First...Manchurian Candidate Was For Tax Cuts But Voted Against Them...Huckleberry Not A Beauty-Parlor Fan...
May 16, 2007 -- "COLUMBIA, S.C. - An irate Rudy Giuliani blasted a fellow Republican candidate at last night's GOP debate for trying to blame the United States for 9/11.
Giuliani unloaded both barrels at Texas Rep. Ron Paul, a fringe Republican White House hopeful with little support, who said, "Have you ever read about the reason they attacked us? They attacked us because we've been over there."
"We've been bombing Iraq for 10 years," Paul went on. "I'm suggesting that we listen to the people who attacked us."
Giuliani suddenly turned the polite debate on its head when he jumped out of turn to respond to Paul's shocking comments.
The former mayor tore into him for blaming Americans for 9/11.
"That was an extraordinary statement, as someone who has lived through the attacks of Sept. 11th, that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq," an indignant Giuliani responded.
"I don't think I've ever heard that before, and I've heard some pretty absurd explanations for Sept. 11th.
"I'd ask the congressman to withdraw the statement and say he wasn't serious," Giuliani added to rousing applause - the loudest of the night - at the debate sponsored by Fox News and the South Carolina Republican Party.
When Paul didn't back down from saying that American meddling around the world triggered the attacks, an exasperated Giuliani said, "Can I have 30 seconds, please!"
Moderator Brit Hume then cut off further discussion on the topic.
The exchange was the highlight of the 90-minute face-off among 10 GOP hopefuls.
Giuliani also blasted Democratic lawmakers who "want to give our enemies a schedule for retreat" by imposing a timetable for the military to leave Iraq.
"Fort Dix happened six days ago," he said, referring to the foiled plot by Islamists to kill soldiers at the New Jersey military base.
"We have to remind ourselves that they want to come here and kill us."
Earlier, he deflected a question about of his liberal positions on abortion, gun control and gay rights - and why he backed liberal Democrat Mario Cuomo for governor in 1994 - by attacking Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton as a backer of big government.
"We're looking at a race in which the leading Democratic candidate for president of the United States has said that the unfettered free market is the most disastrous thing in modern America," Giuliani said.
"She also said, with regard to taxes, that we have to take money from you in order to give it to the common good," he said.
When pressed, Giuliani defended his pro-choice position on abortion.
"We want to keep government out of people's lives. You have to respond to other people's views on this," he said.
Elsewhere, Giuliani said that he cut taxes 23 times as New York City mayor and that he got a glowing report from the Club for Growth as a tax cutter. He also said he reined in spending, and vowed to slash 50 percent of vacant jobs in the federal government.
"If you can lower spending in New York City . . . Washington is easier than New York City," he said.
Giuliani's chief rival, John McCain, was on the defensive about why he opposed President Bush's tax cuts in 2001, but now supports them.
"I didn't say I was wrong. I was against the tax cuts because we didn't rein in spending," McCain said, adding that Republicans lost Congress last year because "we spent like drunken sailors."
Mitt Romney pointed to his record of not raising taxes as Massachusetts governor, and said he wouldn't do so as president.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee got an applause line on GOP overspending.
"We spent money like John Edwards at a beauty shop," he said of the well-coiffed Democratic presidential candidate, who has been ridiculed for getting $400 haircuts."
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